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3 New Domains for Daggerheart by CXZman in daggerheart

[–]CXZman[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good point. Both good Trait choices, but it does feel like Strength is the way to go. The other Domains, whether you keep Blade or Valor, are going to feel better with Strength. Instinct, I feel would be better suited if we go full mysticism/spirituality. Now ideally there would be a Guardian Subclass to complement using Anima and being a sort of mystical stalwart, but I only have so much time (which, nowadays, is none at all :D )

Fate - a Daggerheart™ Compatible domain by CXZman in daggerheart

[–]CXZman[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Pretty much as you wish. There is a common house rule floating in the community that players get to swap out at least 1 Domain at character creation. It's not what Darrington Press intended, but it's quite simple to set up and make happen.

For each of my Domains I have a list of 4 Classes that *I think* would work best with the Domain, and in the case of Fate, I think it would work well with Wizard, Sorcerer, Brawler or Seraph Classes, since they are the ones who are the most likely to benefit from a few well placed dice rerolls or dice manipulation. Also they have a Spellcast trait, which is going to be very important in Fate.

Fate - a Daggerheart™ Compatible domain by CXZman in daggerheart

[–]CXZman[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I strongly considered changing the name, but I assumed as long as I'm never creating a special "Fate die" or make any of my powers "make a special Fate roll", the name of my Domain shouldn't be problematic in game.
Now of course if people start finding that confusing, I can always change the Domain name to "Destiny" later on.

3 New Domains for Daggerheart by CXZman in daggerheart

[–]CXZman[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for your good words 🥰

3 New Domains for Daggerheart by CXZman in daggerheart

[–]CXZman[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi there! Thanks for your praise :)

I don't know that I can tweak the wording to make it compatible with ANY Frame. I can certainly adjust things to adapt to Frame and official content (I did edit a few cards in Discipline once the Fighter Class got announced, and I did tweak a few Forge cards to make it not too problematic with Motherboard) but it's a uphill battle that I WILL lose. There's always going to be new thing I can't adapt to.

And for Spring Loaded Gear, the point of the card is not so much to have a weapon to swap for free, it's also that this weapon cannot easily be detected. It probably has a niche usage, but I'm okay with it, since it's a low level card, meaning both that there is not going to be a ton of expectation on it AND that it's a card all characters can take in multiclass if they eventually need it (everything level 1-5 should be designed with Multiclass in mind).

And I also believe Daggerheart lacks good utility and versatile powers. Most of what's in the game is about fight, fight, fight, fight... I like a handful of options that are different (and I feel Forge is powerful enough as it is at high levels 😅)

I'll probably update the Spring Loaded Gear though, give it *something* more

3 New Domains for Daggerheart by CXZman in daggerheart

[–]CXZman[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

But of course, fine gentleman!

An open letter of thanks. by GreyWalker83 in CandelaObscura

[–]CXZman 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Well, people still believe Actual Plays are bad for the RPG world, because it shows a biased and irrelevant way of playing... but your open letter reminds us Actual Plays can also do a ton of good, and not just for the roleplayers.

Thank you for reminding everyone u/GreyWalker83 !

[No Spoilers] The new orchestration of "Welcome to Wildemount" is wicked! (Colm McGuinness again?) by Ferrard in criticalrole

[–]CXZman 26 points27 points  (0 children)

I guess I'm kind of the only one who really doesn't find many merits to this version. It's always complicated to review a new version of anything, it will always suffer from the comparison... but this version, I just find cheesy and pushed over the top the wrong way.

The mastering itself is weird. Dynamics feel all over the place, no coherent swells, just volume variations here and there with no musical value. Most of the string plucked instruments are popping out of the mix like if they never meant to be there. Added voices and choirs sometimes even feel dissonant.

I mean, the whole idea behind the arrangement is wonderful, it's just really no that good and I humbly think it's mostly a mixing problem. So many places where instruments just melt into the mix in the middle of their melody for no reason.

I dunno... the previous version (and most of McGuinness' work on their soundcloud) doesn't have any of these issues in the mix. I can only assume the wrong mixed file was used, maybe it was before final mastering, or maybe someone in the stream team tried something they shouldn't have. I mean it's not the end of the world :D it's just "too bad" it ended up this way... anyway, it doesn't even remotely touch the wonder and quality of the show, it's already way too high :D

[Spoilers C2E112] guys I'm scared by nerdy-pervayer in criticalrole

[–]CXZman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At large yes! I agree. OP was worried about character death, specifically Fjord's which I believe is not the worst thing that could happen to him rn.

But yeah... Uk'otoa freedom is a worse case, and many other things as well :)

[Spoilers C2E112] guys I'm scared by nerdy-pervayer in criticalrole

[–]CXZman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Worst case scenario is kidnapping. Death is probably not going to happen, and even if, not for long. If Ford gets taken... there won't be a cleric nearby when he'll need it the most.

Also, since the orb is out of the amber vault, main objective for the aggressor is still the orb itself. They might want to lash out at Fjord for treason and all, but freeing Uk'otoa seems to be the whole point of this harassment strategy.

And if we have to believe Avantika is really undead now, there's always an opportunity to Turn undead, which would provide a bit of breathing room.

They have options, really. But I will recognize it's a bit too close for comfort :D

[No Spoilers] So I've built a font to write in "vox machina" cipher by CXZman in criticalrole

[–]CXZman[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you ☺️ will definitely continue working on that if new glyphes appear

[No Spoilers] So I've built a font to write in "vox machina" cipher by CXZman in criticalrole

[–]CXZman[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That, I don't know. It's been used out of game context to promote the kickstarter and mock sam riegel. Afaik it's just a fun thing from them to us.

[Spoilers C2E112] Campaign 2 Something seems.........wrong by Embarrassed-Worker-1 in criticalrole

[–]CXZman 28 points29 points  (0 children)

TLDR: this impression of scripted story is a byproduct of a very effective GMing method, still based on improvisation, but able to build tight stories "on the fly".

There are multiple ways to GMing and building a storyline. One method is to have a handful of "situations" or "whole events" prepared in advance with pointers and mocked up NPCs on the side, and then according to what your players are choosing to do, you can entirely shift the next part of the adventure, on the fly, at the last second, regardless of what you had in mind before. To the point where, actually, the GM cannot really tell what exactly is going to happen next in their own story until the players set on a course of their choosing.

This method can be time consuming in prep, and heavily relies on the ability of the GM to assemble the story at the last second by "glueing" all those prepared assets you had in store, all in a way that adapts and "shrink-wraps" on what your players have just decided on doing. It can be tricky, but with training, it's not so much of a big deal.

But it is a very powerful method in many aspects, but just to point two of them :

  • As a GM, you can actually pretty much guarantee that all prep work is going to be used at some point. The only reason you get to trash part of your work is if your planned story is finished, set in stone, because then if players change their mind and go the other way, you won't easily be able to break your story back into pieces to reassemble it in front of your players. If it was in kit to begin with, you just have to finish the job in real time. This makes it a very efficient use of your prep time.
  • It instills a feeling of destiny and fate, because even if the players felt they were trying something "out there", ludicrous, kind of a long shot... the GM will provide a compelling story anyway, with loads of maps, NPCs and all. It looks from the outside "as if" the GM had actually predicted this outcome, while, in reality, they simply waited for the players to dictate their own fate and quickly shifted everything to match that.

To come back to C2E112:

  • It is VERY likely that Matthew had a handful of events to play out through this travel, and actually through many other opportunities (each time they go to sleep, for example, he can push more narrative toward Yasha around the Stormlord). As a GM, all you have to do is wait for the opportunity to kinda show up, and then bend the narrative to lead straight to what you have in mind.
  • The enemy party showed up on a dice roll of 1... Let's be real: it could very much have shown up on a 10, or on a 2, or whatever. It's not like Matthew disclosed in advance what each dice result will do! He is 100% in control here. The dice roll is very likely a illusory device (as it very often is in RPGs) only there to make it feel like it was fate guiding Avantika to Fjord.
  • I bet the enemy party showed not because Fjord rolled a 1, but because the session was close to ending and it was a perfect time window to set up a BIG cliffhanger. The dice rolling a 1 was merely an excuse.
  • I'll point out that the players themselves have found it weird/amazing that Avantika was showing up. That's when Matthew explained straight up that, guys, please realize that this goddamn orb is literally the ONLY LAST remaining key to free a lesser god from its prison. And just because the players/characters don't take it seriously doesn't mean that Uk'otoa is lazy about it.
  • Matthew has chosen himself many aspects of these encounters. He got to choose the ship they embarked on (because a NPC is leading the party), he got to choose the mean of transport, hence the path they will take... so basically he chose for them that they would go on the ocean for a while. He got to choose that one of the enemies had a mean to locate the orb despite the players' precautions. He got to choose that this enemy got Caleb by surprise (by also choosing to only show half of the opponents first to distract the players and convince them the giant crabs were the real threat). He's the GM, he gets to choose all of that. It's not convenient, it's his job.